


Flu? In My Body? It's More Likely Than You Think

by redgoldblue



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: DCTV Secret Santa, F/F, Fluff, h/c
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-22 04:32:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17053205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redgoldblue/pseuds/redgoldblue
Summary: When Ava unexpectedly falls sick, Sara confiscates her time carrier and tries to confine her to bed. Ava will not stand for this, and is going to get back down to the Bureau if it kills her.





	Flu? In My Body? It's More Likely Than You Think

**Author's Note:**

> Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays! Hope you like it!

Sara wandered into the parlour, holding a cup of coffee in one hand and rubbing the other over her eyes. She lowered her hand to see Nate slung over a chair on one side of the room, Mick sitting with his elbows on his knees on the other side, and Zari on the floor leaning against the back wall, legs stretched out in front of her. She wondered briefly if she’d missed an alert.

“What’re you all doing in here?”

“Reading.”

“Waiting for something to happen.”

“Drinking.”

“Okay, but why in here?”

“Comfy chairs.”

“Closest to the bridge.”

“The British twat’s in the kitchen.”

She laughed and claimed the last chair, setting her cup on the table in front of her. “Fair enough.”

“Where’s the Mrs?” Mick grunted.

“Bed. I didn’t want to wake her up, she hasn’t been sleeping well.”

“I would have thought she slept a strictly regimented 7 hours nightly,” Zari commented drily.

Sara smirked. “Well, I tired her out last night.”

There was a faint thud across the room as Nate’s book fell shut. “I can’t decide whether the appropriate reaction is ‘ew’ or ‘get it, Captain’.”

Zari and Mick responded at the same time.

“Ew.”

“Get it, Cap’n.”

“Thanks, Rory,” she replied absentmindedly, frowning. “Z’s right though, she wouldn’t normally sleep for this long. I’m gonna go check on her. No-one touch my coffee.”

They waited until she’d turned the corner out of the bridge until Zari reached out and made a grabbing motion in the direction of the table. “Someone give me the coffee?”

Mick passed it down to her, ignoring Nate’s vaguely disapproving noise.

Zari waved a hand at him. “She can just get another one when she gets back.”

“Yeah, I guess,” he relented, and picked up his book again.

 

Sara stood in the open doorway to her room, a soft smile on her face. Ava was curled on one side of the bed, blonde hair spread out across the dark pillow and arms wrapped in the sheets from Sara’s side. She walked in, lowering herself gently down on the other side. Ava murmured something under her breath and turned her face towards Sara. Her hair fell across her eyes and she made an irritated noise and struggled to free her hands. Laughing, Sara brushed it back with one hand, then helped to extricate her from the sheets. Ava smiled up at her through half-closed eyes. She grabbed Sara’s hand before she could pull it away, pressing it to her cheek, and nestled further into the pillow. “Mmmm. What time is it?”

“Gideon?” Sara asked.

“We are on a time ship, Director Sharpe, and as such that question is fundamentally flawed. However, it has been roughly 14 hours since we left Earth, at which point it was 8:30 pm.”

“You know, it’s sort of creepy that she listens to everything on the ship,” Ava muttered to Sara.

“If it makes you feel any better, Captain Lance regularly mutes her cabin at night when you are on board.”

“I’m not sure that it does, honestly.” She paused, then blinked and bolted up, dropping Sara’s hand. “Wait, that means it’s 10:30! I should have been at work three hours ago! Why didn’t you wake me up?”

Sara swung her legs up to sit against the backboard and gently shoulder-checked her. “Time ship, babe.”

Closing her eyes, she groaned and pressed a hand against her forehead, with an expression Sara didn’t think she’d ever seen before on her face.

“Are you okay, Ava?”

She blinked, and turned to put her feet on the ground. “I’m fine, it’s nothing,” she dismissed, the Director Sharpe undercurrent of steel in her voice. She pushed herself to her feet, wavering slightly. Sara, watching closely, threw herself across the bed just in time to catch her as she fell back.

“You are not fine and it is not nothing,” she said firmly. “What was that? Are you dizzy?”

“I’m… yes, a little. But really, I’m okay. I just wasn’t ready.”

Sure, Sara thought to herself. But there was no way Ava was going to give in without trying again, so she put an arm around her shoulders and helped her up. She stayed upright this time, but she was leaning heavily on Sara and her face had drained of colour.

“Alright, we’re going to the medbay,” Sara said, supporting her as they moved towards the door. “Is anything else wrong? Do you feel hot, or is anything hurting?”

“No.” There was a pause, then she admitted, “Well, my muscles hurt, but I was chasing a leprechaun around the Bureau yesterday.” Another pause. “And I think I have a headache. But not much of one. And I was probably just sleeping in a bad position. I’m fine, I have to get to work.”

Sara stopped them just outside the medbay doors. “You want me to take my arm away so you can collapse again? You can get back to the Bureau after you recover from whatever this is. Gideon will even be able to get you there on time.”

“That… is not a proper use of time travelling resources.”

“No,” she agreed, walking inside and letting Ava sit down on the edge of one of the beds. “But it’s a useful one. Gideon?”

“Yes, Captain?”

“Can you scan Ava? I think she’s just sick, but I want to make sure it’s not something serious.”

“If the Director would lay back…”

Frowning, Ava did as requested. “I can’t be sick.”

“Yeah? The great Director Ava Sharpe intimidates the germs away through sheer willpower alone, huh?”

“No, I- I’m a clone, Sara, I was supposed to be ‘designed perfectly’. I can’t get sick. Maybe the leprechaun cursed me?”

“No, Captain Lance is correct. You have what I believe would be termed ‘a bad bout of the flu’.”

“But- no. That’s not possible. Check again.”

“I check all my scans upwards of a hundred times as a matter of protocol,” Gideon replied, clearly annoyed at the suggestion she could be wrong. “However, I just repeated it in full, and received the same results. This is a common influenza infection, Director Sharpe.”

Sara glanced at Ava, who was staring straight ahead with a glazed look in her eyes, and took over the conversation. “Can you get rid of it, Gideon?”

“I’m afraid my medical talents are restricted to injuries and magical ailments. However, I have administered a mild painkiller and medication to assist with the dizziness. I believe the best treatment for this is regarded as ‘fluids and bed rest.’ Also, chicken soup. I can provide the latter.”

“Thanks, Gideon.”

Ava turned to look at Sara, although her gaze was still slightly unfocused. “How?”

“Given our lack of knowledge surrounding your creation, my best estimation would be that prolonged exposure to a climate and microbiotic environment other than that which the Advanced Variant Automation clones were designed for has affected the functioning of your immune system.”

Sara shrugged. “What she said. Let’s get you back to bed, yeah?”

Ava waved away any help, stood, and followed Sara slowly back to her room.

 

“Hey, you should be lying down,” Sara said lightly, placing the glass of water she’d gone to get on the bedside table.

“The Bureau…” Ava started, ignoring the comment.

“I can send Nate back down, if you really won’t let us drop you back at the start of today.”

“Yes,” she replied, although which part she was agreeing to she wasn’t sure.

“Alright, now, feet up on the bed,” Sara clucked in a reasonable mother hen impression. “You’ve got water and books, and the TV’s there if you decide you just want to binge-watch _Stranger Things_ again. Tell Gideon if you need anything and she’ll get me, yeah? I have to go talk to Nate and make sure none of the other kids are planning anything unreasonably nefarious.”

She leant over to kiss her on the forehead, and simultaneously grabbed her time courier off the shelf above the bed. “Oh, and I’m taking this. They’ll survive down there without you for a few days. I love you.”

“Love you.”

Ava waited until the door had closed behind Sara before calling out, “Gideon?” She always felt odd talking into thin air with nothing to direct her speech towards.

“Yes, Director Sharpe?” came the prompt answer from… somewhere in the walls.

“Where’s Captain Lance taking my time courier?”

“I don’t believe she would want me to tell you that.”

“Great. I thought you were meant to be helpful.”

“The Captain’s orders override any service protocols.” She paused, then continued in a perfectly modulated imitation of Ava’s inflections. “I thought you were meant to approve of following hierarchy.”

“Creepy,” she muttered under her breath. “It’s creepy. Fine, I’ll find it myself.”

Gideon remained silent, but Ava could’ve sworn the door took about 10 seconds longer than usual to open when she reached it.

 

Inching along with one hand on the wall, Ava had managed to get 20 feet from the library, which she figured was the most likely place for the time courier to be. Sure, Nate was capable in his job, as was Gary – mostly – but neither of them knew how to run the entire bureau. That was her job, and she was damned if she was going to stop doing it just because her body had locked up on her. She turned a corner – almost there – and groaned internally. Directly in front of her was Ray Palmer’s eternally and annoyingly cheery face. He grinned at her and launched into a fast-patter monologue before she could even come up with an excuse.

“Hey, Ava!” he started, transferring his tablet to one hand so he could put the other one on her shoulder. He quickly withdrew it at her expression, but continued talking despite it. “Gideon told me Nate had to go back to work because you were sick. Which is sad, but it’s not like I blame you or anything. It’s not your fault your immune system’s changed like that. Actually, Gideon told me all about it, and I was wondering if you’d be okay with some extra scans? Maybe I could take some blood? I might be able to help, not with this, but you’ll probably need modified vaccines now that we know you can get sick, and also, honestly, I’d be interested. Not right now though, later. Actually, why are you up? Did you want me to get Sara? Or can I help?”

He finally paused, and Ava cursed to herself. She’d been hoping he’d have forgotten that she shouldn’t be out of bed at some point in that torrent of words.

“I… just ran out of water. And I got bored stuck in there, so I thought I’d come get it myself.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s fair. I got really bored when I was stuck as a pig. Well, after I stopped panicking. And I could still go round the whole ship, I just couldn’t do anything. Trotters are really useless. You should be resting though, you look like you’re burning up.”

He put his tablet down on a bench and went over to the corner of the lab. Ava briefly considered running out while his back was turned, but before she could even come to the conclusion that that was a stupid idea, he’d turned back around, holding a glass of water.

“Here, I’ll walk you back to Sara’s room. I installed a replicator in here when we were holding Charlie. I’d been thinking of doing it for a while, but it just made sense then, you know. Is there anything I could do to help with the boredom?”

Yeah, get me out of here, she thought. “No, it’s fine,” she said out loud. “I’ve got a book I’m reading, I’ll just stick with that.”

“Alright then, I’ll just walk with you.” He gallantly offered an arm for her to lean on, and with a sigh, she took it and went with him back down the hallways.

 

Ava sat on the edge of the bed, hunched over, and thought. She wasn’t used to navigating the Waverider by herself, but she was fairly sure there was an alternate way to the library which avoided most of the rooms. It did cut through the kitchen, but it was mid-morning, so theoretically there’d be no reason for anyone to be there. Not that any of the Legends followed normal societal rules in… anything, let alone appropriate timing. But Ray had gone back to the lab, so she had no choice but to cross her fingers and hope. She leant back against the bedhead for a moment, waiting for the room to stop the mild oscillation that it had started when Ray had dropped her off, then heaved herself up. Time to go.

 

She hesitated outside the door into the kitchen, thinking. What if someone was in there? She rested her forehead against the cool wall and tried to plan through the fog suffusing her thoughts. Oh, what the hell, water would work again, it wouldn’t be Ray in there. If she was lucky, it wouldn’t be anyone in there. She stood up straight and walked through. There was a brief and blessed moment in which she thought she was free and clear, before blonde spikes rose up from behind the kitchen counter. A series of creative curses barely resisted exiting her mouth. Constantine was a damn wild card.

He greeted her with raised eyebrows. “Hello, Sharpie. Aren’t you supposed to be in bed?”

“I was just-”

“Trying to escape? Believe me, I understand the desire. I get it every ten minutes around these morons.”

“You’ll help?” she asked, giving up on subterfuge and trying to ignore the note of desperation in her own voice.

“Ah, no can do, sweetheart. Sara’d never forgive me.”

Ava frowned. “Didn’t you save her life? Surely she owes you a get out of jail free card.”

Chuckling, he shook his head. “Technically it was just her soul. And I’m pretty sure I’ve already used that one up. A few times.”

“Come on, I can’t leave Gary and Nate down there alone. Who knows what’s going on down there right now, with the damn Time Bros in charge.”

“We’re on a time ship, there’s no such thing as right now. Come on, let’s get you back to bed and they can drop you off at work this morning when you’re better. I’d rather not be impaled by the Captain today.”

“That is an extravagant misuse of resources and I won’t allow it.”

Constantine frowned at her, something ticking over behind his eyes which made Ava uncomfortable, but all he said was, “Then I suppose you’ll just have to trust the… Time Bros. It’s beddy-byes time now. I’ll take you back, and no-one has to know this happened, yeah?”

She opened her mouth to protest, then decided it wasn’t worth the effort. Rubbing a hand over her forehead, she reluctantly obeyed Constantine’s shooing motion. He followed her out, and all the way back to Sara’s room, leaving her sitting on the bed with water in one hand and a book in the other. He gave her a sharp salute as the door closed behind him, and she smiled in spite of herself. Maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to just lie down for a minute. One minute wouldn’t hurt.

 

Ava blinked awake, her headache half-gone despite the newly developed kink in her neck, and glanced to the side before remembering she was on the Waverider and Sara didn’t have a clock. She groaned, and drank the still-full glass of water Ray had given her.

“How long was I asleep, Gideon?” she asked.

“One hour and 21 minutes, Director.”

“Could’ve been worse,” she muttered to herself. She had a flash of realisation. She might get the same answer as she did for the time courier, but it was worth a try.

“Gideon, is there a clear path to the library without anyone in the way?”

There was a pause before she answered, with an irritatingly neutral tone. “Mr. Constantine has vacated the kitchen. That path currently has no-one along it.”

“Thanks.”

There was no reply from Gideon. Ava shrugged and swung her legs over the side of the bed. Slowly putting weight on one, then the other, she was relieved when she managed to stand upright with only mild dizziness. She walked to the door, and set out to the library again.

 

“Captain Lance?”

Sara looked up from trying to decipher the map Nate had left spread out in the parlour.

“Yes, Gideon?”

“Director Sharpe has left your room, and is headed for the library again.”

Sara sighed. Ray had seen straight through the water excuse, given that the lab was not on the way to the kitchen in any world - he really was more perceptive than people gave him credit for - and had told her immediately. Ava had been sleeping peacefully when she’d last stopped by to check on her, and she’d hoped that she’d realise her limits and stay that way. She should have known better, really.

“Alright, thanks for telling me. I’ll go find her.”

 

Ava took the last careful few steps towards the library, victory bells ringing in her head. Unless that was just her headache coming back, but she was choosing to believe it was victory bells. She placed one hand on the doorway and pulled herself through.

“Oh, fuck. Shit. Goddamnit.”

“Hey, Ava,” Sara replied, leaning back in one of the library’s plush armchairs.

Ava let out a puff of breath in defeat, and collapsed into the nearest chair. “How did you- Gideon.”

“Yep. I did ask her to tell me when you woke up, though, so she just added on some extra information.”

“You’ve gotta see that that’s creepy, right?” she questioned, with considerably less force behind it than she would have liked.

Sara got out of her Bond villain pose to drop down in front of Ava, placing a hand on her knee. “Why won’t you just let yourself rest?” she asked, curiosity mingled with genuine concern in her voice.

She shook her head, immediately regretting the movement. “I’m fine, I don’t need to. If I get down there I can just sit in my office, I don’t have to go running around, but as long as I’m there it’ll be alright.”

“No, I’d get it if it was just that you didn’t want to leave Nate and Gary in charge - although I would say you’re not placing enough trust in them for a healthy boss-employee relationship. But you’re being weird about us dropping you off in time-” She held up a hand before Ava could protest and continued. “I know you think it’s ‘inappropriate resource usage,’ but normally you would have given in by now, considering that it doesn’t actually use up anything. So what’s really going on?”

“No, really, it’s…”

She looked up, straight into Sara’s eyes, disbelief having replaced curiosity, but still with worry and concern shining in the blue depths. She closed her own and sighed, walls of self-denial shattered by the love on her face.

“I shouldn’t be able to get sick.”

“I know, you said that, but why is that messing you up so much?”

“It’s… I’m a clone, Sara. Most of my memories are a lie, I don’t have a childhood, my parents are actors. Learning that, it… it fucked up my life, you know?”

Sara nodded slightly, staying silent with eyes fixed on her.

“But I thought, hey, right, at least there’s an upside. I thought the one good thing to come out of the whole stupid mess was that at least I knew my body would never let me down, because it couldn’t. It was designed not to. I actually could spend all my time helping people, saving the timeline, keeping the Bureau running, because my body would never break down and stop me from doing it. But turns out I was wrong about that too! Turns out there is no positive, and the whole thing is just a…”

She struggled for words, finally ending up with, “A complete fucking hellscape.”

Not her best work, her brain advised her through the turmoil of emotion.

“Oh, Ava.” Sara rose onto her knees, and held out her arms. Ava blinked rapidly, holding back tears, and fell into them.

“I can’t tell you there’s a positive to it, because I don’t know if there is,” she started, wrapping her arms tightly around her. “But I can tell you that it doesn’t mean your life is any different, not really. All your recent memories really happened, and all the other ones still contribute to who you are now – in that way they’re as real as anyone’s. And most importantly, you still have your job, your home, your friends. Me. Just because you can get sick doesn’t mean your entire world’s collapsed in on itself, even if you feel like it has.”

Ava took a shuddering breath. “I know,” she murmured into Sara’s shoulder. “I… I know. It’s just… hard.”

“Yeah. And listen, you don’t have to suddenly become okay with it overnight. Believe me, I know about overcoming shocks, and it’s not going to just go away. But how about we make a start, huh?”

Ava leant back and gave a watery smile, brushing her hair out of her face. “What’d you suggest?”

“Going to bed, and letting the Time Bureau get by without you for a few days. We don’t even have to go back in time to drop you off if you don’t want.”

“That sounds good. The room isn’t actually spinning, is it?”

“Oh my god, no.”

“I just had to check. I am on the Legends’ ship. Stranger things have happened here.”

Sara laughed. “Yeah, okay, that’s true.”

She laced their hands together, and pulled Ava up with her. “Let’s go.”

Ava put one arm over her shoulders, and together they moved slowly back to bed.

 

One week later:

“Captain, Ms Sharpe has requested your presence.”

“Alright, I’m coming. You good here, guys?”

“Yeah, yeah, go.”

 

Sara leant in the doorway and smiled in at Ava, sitting up against the bedhead. “You know, I’m almost starting to regret the whole convincing you to stay in bed thing. Not that it isn’t nice to know you miss me, but I do have a job.”

Ava grinned back at her, the light above the bed illuminating her messy hair into a halo. “I think your boss will let you off. In fact, I just checked with her, and she said it’s fine.”

“I’m sorry, who would that be again? ‘Cause I was under the impression that I don’t have a boss, just a colleague in the Time Bureau.”

“Well, in that case, I’m sure your boss will say it’s alright once _you_ check with her.”

Sara laughed and went to sit on the edge of the bed next to her. “You know what, you might be right. But she would like me to get back to it soon, before anyone causes irreparable damage to the timeline.”

“You’ll like this, then.” She sat up straighter and gestured with one hand. “Gideon, hit her.”

“I have performed a preliminary scan on Ms Sharpe, and she appears to be close to fully recovered from her illness.”

“Hey!” She leant over to hug Ava. “You’re right, I do like that.”

“If she would come to medbay, I could do a full check, and likely clear her for return to work at the Bureau.”

“Oh, we can put that off for a while, huh?” Sara replied with a mischievous note in her voice.

Ava nodded in agreement, ripples of laughter behind her eyes. She grabbed Sara’s face with both hands and leant in to kiss her as Sara pulled them both down onto the bed.

“I love you,” Ava said, leaning back a minute later.

Sara smiled at her, tendrils of warmth curling through her chest.

“I love you too.”

Ava wrapped her arms around Sara’s shoulders, and pulled her back down.


End file.
